Towards the Facilitation of Academic Staff Active Engagement in e-Teaching Transformation in Higher Education Institutions : Building an eActive model for three Saudi Arabian universities to facilitate effective academic staff engagement and continuous innovation in e‐Teaching

Abstract

Technological innovations have great impacts on higher education. In recent years, higher educational institutes have been replacing, or supplementing, the traditional face-to-face course delivery with electronically-mediated teaching in their programs (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004; Stoltenkamp, Kies, & Njenga, 2007). While the use of electronically-mediated teaching is increasing in higher education, the institutions have been facing complexities and challenges in academic staff engagement. This study used an action research approach to develop a model to motivate staff to be engaged in e-Teaching environments. The researcher role was a consultant in an e-Learning training centre in Saudi Arabia. This centre helps universities in Saudi Arabia to engage their staff in e-Teaching. While working collaboratively with a team from that centre and by reviewing the literature, the researcher has proposed a model to engage staff in e-Teaching for three female Saudi Arabian universities according to the preference of a sample from the same universities.